Philip Henry Gosse was a British 20th century naturalist and illustrator. Attempting to fit Charles Lyell´s "Principles of Geology" into the biblical chronology of creation, he argued in his book "Omphalos" that when god created the world five thousand years ago, he also made up all natural and historical artifacts pointing at a time before that. God, he argued, gave us an artificial past so that we can bear our existence as the result of his sudden creative act.

This remarkable story inspired this project. Stone tools are the first historically recorded tools of humans, reaching back 2.6 million years ago. The stone tools in "Artificial Archeology" are virtually generated with deformations in the style of chipped stone. These objects are then rendered with a filter to mimic the style of 19th century scientific illustrations. The artificiality of the stone tools becomes more evident when rendered as gemstones.